This week was mostly about polishing up the shots and getting them into engine. I redid a couple animations to make them better and added props in to really flesh them out. Then, I assembled each of my sequences together in Unreal.
My Shots
For this week, it's mostly been about splining my animations and polishing them up more. I ironed out more of the key frames and started the process of timing them out better to fit what the scenes need. Later, I uploaded the Maya files, FBX files, and MP4 files onto Perforce.
A10
B40
This week, I did some layout work, providing more feedback to finalize the shot sequences. I helped David with creating the Animation Guide for all the animators to use moving forward. This week was mostly spent blocking out each of my scenes, setting up the rough key poses for each of my four shots, as well as altering camera setups and shots to fit better with the newer rigs and environments. I then uploaded videos and FBXs to Perforce and Unreal.
Block Outs
A10
As the newly appointed layout lead, I spent time this week looking over my group mates' sequences and suggesting changes to make sure they are in line for what we need.
Most of my time this week was spent creating 2D test footage for the yarn ball character. A lot of people, outside and inside the project, have been confused on how the yarn ball actually moves around in the film. Some thinks the yarn rolls, others think they slither. I wanted to do some 2D test animation to show how this character moves. First, I animated a scene from the storyboards, and then I animated an entirely original scene for the second one.
2D Test Footage
Perforce
For my contribution to this sprint, I contributed a lot of storyboards for different sequences throughout the short film, as well as editing together and adding sound effects and music to it.
Storyboards
Animatic
As for the animatic, I edited together the first and second part of the three sections of the film. I took everyone's shots from those parts and timed them out properly for the animatic. After I got Parker's edited section as the final part, I added sound effects and music to it.
Perforce
For my Artist Interview, I interviewed Teresa Falcone, a UCF Character Animation graduate and currently an animator at Pixar. Thank you so much, Teresa, for lending me so much of your time to talk about yourself and the industry.
Perforce Submission
What I Did This Week
This week, I received the most complete, fully functional rig yet, so I wanted to expand what the original animations did in subtle ways while also taking some of the feedback I got last week into account. I finally had finger controls to work with, so I employed them in ways that added expressive detail to the animations, such a fist clenches on certain actions. My main focus this week, however, was on the snakes on Medusa's head, which received criticism in the class before. I wanted to make them more life like, but I didn't quite know how to apply that to snakes spawning out of a scalp. I looked at references from other depictions of the character throughout media, particularly from the Percy Jackson films. With that, I was able apply more realistic snake motion to all of the animations I had made.
Before:
Perforce:
For this final sprint, I added the last bits of polish to each shot, made sure they were all using the correct rigs, and exported them into ...
